Electronics and Programming Guides

September 01, 2022 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: About 1 minute

Discover helpful and inciteful tips that you can use in your electronics and programming projects. We are focused on home-brew electronics, specifically for home automation. We like to use MQTT, Home Assistant, Node-RED, and Zigbee along with Node MCU and Arduino. With this combination of electronics and programming, you can automate anything.

We share some information about electronics fundamentals as well as knowledge about more advanced topics in electronics. It is very helpful to learn fundamentals such as Ohm's Law and resister networks when you are building home automation circuits.

Here you can find guides and articles with creative ideas, tips, and advice about programming, electronics, and home automation.

When you mix programming and electronics together you get fun.

EFUNDIES.com currently provides articles and guides related to electronics and programming. When our site update is complete, we plan to offer source code collaboration. We will also be adding guides and articles about home automation, so check in often to see our new projects.

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MIDI Controlled Solenoids with Arduino and Ableton Live - Part 2

This is part 2 in a 3 part series that shows how to make Ableton Live play music on electric solenoids using an Arduino.

How to Implement AVR Timer Interrupts in C for Atmel Microcontrollers

Timer interrupts are an excellent way of having your AVR do something at a given interval.

How to Replace A Color in an Image with C#

Sometimes you need to replace one color in an image with another color. C# makes it easy.

5 Reasons You Should be Using Docker for Home Automation

If you are not using Docker on your home automation server, then it's time to start thinking about it.

C# Text File

There is a static object called "File" (located in System. IO) that does all the hard work for you.

You can get started programming with a simple setup. All it takes is a laptop and a cup of coffee.

Programming: Tips and Tricks

A collection of tips, tricks, and snippets of code for a variety of programming languages, including C#, AVR, Arduino, and Perl.

Learning Linux will help you with many different home automation projects.

Linux

When you get interested in home automation, you are eventually going to want to learn Linux.

Here’s a closeup of how we wired our IRF520 modules. You can see that the power to the modules is in parallel.

MIDI Controlled Solenoids with Arduino and Ableton Live - Part 1

At the end of the series you will have a setup that is capable doing this. This is a pretty complex topic so it is split into 3 parts to make it easier to follow.

Image Processing in C#: A Comprehensive Guide

C# is a great language to do image processing in. It's fast and easy to handle complex image manipulations with it.

There are many different Arduinos to choose from, such as this Uno variety.

Arduino

Many home automation projects can be solved by simply "throwing an Arduino at it". Our Arduino articles show you how.

Begining Circuit Analysis and Ohms Law

For simple circuits this is pretty easy. For complex circuits it can be amazingly hard, even for pros.

This MIDI controller can be used to play music, write tracks in a DAW, or just about any home automation you can think of.

MIDI

You can use MIDI to write songs, play music, control games, or even control your home automations.

Command line interface

Command Line Interface

Command line interface (CLI) is a text-based interface that is used to operate computer systems.

AVR Port Input Logic

In this guide we will write a program in C that makes some decisions based on the state of input pins.

C# Color Object

Once you have a Color object you can easily get the RGB and HSB values out of it.

How to Set Up STK500 Jumper Settings for AVR Programming

Make sure that you have the STK500 user guide on hand, you are going to need it.

Convert an Image to Gray Scale in C# - A Quick and Easy Guide

Sometimes you need to take a color image and remove all of the color from it leaving just shades of gray. There are 3 common ways of performing this calculation, each yielding slightly different results.

How To Read Schematics

Those pictures are called a schematic. A schematic is a picture representation of what we are talking about in electronics.

Resistors in Series

When you wire resistors in series, you can simply add their values together to get the new equivalent reistance.

Some common components include capacitors and resistors, as well as transistors, LED displays, and chips.

Electronics Fundamentals

Learn all about resistors, capacitors, and transistors in our collection of Electronics Fundamentals articles.

Node-RED makes writing home automations fast and easy.

Node-RED

Node-RED is the easiest way to manage your home automation rules. It couples well with Home Assistant and is much easier to program.

An MQTT broker helps glue your home automation systems together.

How To Choose an MQTT Broker: Mosquitto vs HiveMQ vs Home Assistant

When it comes time to choose an MQTT broker, you have a few choices. Let's check out the pros and cons of Mosquitto, HiveMQ, and Home Assistant's built-in MQTT broker.

433 Mhz hardware can extend your home automation.

433 Mhz Radio Transmitters

433 Mhz radio transmitters are available everywhere and they are usually very inexpensive. With a little bit of programming we can make them do anything we want.

How to Select the Right Resistor for Your Circuit: A Fundamentals Guide

The most important component to understand in electronics is the resistor.

How To Quickly Create a OneNote Page from the Command Line

OneNote is a great tool for organizing your thoughts and keeping track of your work, and you can create a OneNote page directly from the command line.

Home automation can be fun with Node-RED and Home Assistant

Node-RED Makes Automation With Home Assistant Fun

Node-RED adds a lot of fun to Home Assistant.

How to Adjust the Contrast of an Image in C#

Adjusting the contrast of an image in C# is an easy operation because it can be done on a single pixel at a time.

How to Create a WinAVR C Skeleton File

If you are New To C then you can consider this a crash course introduction to the language.

Getting Started with AVR

The beauty of AVR is that once you know how to deal with one of them, you know how to deal with all of them.

How to Lighten an Image in C#

In order to lighten an image in C# you need to look at each pixel one at a time and increase it's red, green, and blue values.

Your home automation server can run many different operating systems, including Ubuntu, Proxmox, Unraid, and TrueNAS.

Unraid vs Proxmox vs Ubuntu - Battle For the Best Home Network Server OS

When it comes time to put an operating system on your home network server, you've got a few options.

NodeMCU is one of our go-to chips for tackling various home automation projects.

NodeMCU

We use NodeMCU boards for almost every aspect of home automation. These inexpensive little power-houses can solve many home automation problems.

AVR USART Serial

If you've been following along in these guides, then your STK500 should be setup like this. .

The newest addition to the Windows command prompt experience, Windows Terminal, is the best choice for most people.

Windows Command Prompt vs PowerShell

When it comes to comparing Windows Command Prompt and PowerShell, there are a few key differences.

Save png

How to Save a PNG File in C#

This guide will walk you through the steps required to save an Image or Bitmap to disc in the PNG format and allow you to specify the compression quality.

Introduction to the Command Line Interface: A Beginners Guide to Using the CLI

Introduction to the Command-Line Interface for Beginners

The command-line interface is a text-based interface that allows you to interact with your computer.

How to Darken an Image in C#

In order to darken an image in C# you need to look at each pixel one at a time and decrease it's red, green, and blue values.

Resistors in Parallel

Learn how to calculate the equivalent resistance of two resistors when they are wired in parallel.

What is a binary program file

What is a Binary Program File

We cover what binary program files are and where you should put them on your computer

MQTT is the backbone of many home automation systems.

MQTT

MQTT is the backbone of many home automation systems. We consider MQTT to be the most important part of your home automation system.